Heat the pond for Jersey winter...

[Joe Jiuliani]

Hey guy's, just wanted to know what temperature should my pond water be before I place the heater in the water or do I wait for the frigid cold? I've got 2 aerator in now.

 

[mgmine]

Why do you want to heat it?

 

[Tula]

I think it depends on why you're using a heater. Is it to keep an opening in the ice, or looking to keep the water temp warm?

 

[Joe Jiuliani]

No, don't want to keep water warm, but want to be sure not to stress the fish too much as the water temp. drops. It's getting colder at night here in North Jersey, water temp is about 52 degrees during the day. How low of a temp. should I wait for before putting the heater in the pond it's approx. 500 gallons.

 

[MitchM]

What kind of fish do you have?

 

[Joe Jiuliani]

A few koi and a few Shubunkins

 

[MitchM]

I'll start out by saying that 500g is too small for those fish. One koi requires 1000g. Shubunkins can possibly survive in a smaller area, but that area needs to be well circulated and filtered.
Goldfish produce ethanol as the temperature drops, temperature for them is not an issue.
I don't know about koi and ethanol, although koi certainly survive at freezing levels just fine.

After that being said, your climate will really determine what you should be doing. If you're close to the ocean, your pond won't freeze but you should still run your pumps and filtration.
If there's any danger of icing over, you should bring those fish inside.

 

[sissy]

If you are talking about a pond heater that turns on by it's self you only need to place it in and water gets to a certain temperature it will turn on .

 

[Lisak1]

I'm confused about several things - are you HEATING or DE-ICING? And what makes you think the water temperature going down will stress your fish? How deep is your pond? And lastly - are you hoping to maintain a 50 degree plus temp all winter with a heater?

 

[sissy]

I saw where fish were breeding because the guy heated his pond and electric went out and fish died because they became egg bound .It was on you tube ,he showed the horror of his dead fish

 

[mgmine]

Joe try not to over think nature. If the water is deep enough that it won't freeze at the bottom then an air hole is all you need to be concerned with. As Mitch pointed out though 500 gallons is pretty small.

 

[Faebinder]

500 gallon is too small for a "few koi". If the pond freezes on top, they will die.

Ideally Id get this and hook it up with that. That oughta keep the water temperature in the 40s. Your aerators wont keep the surface open in north jersey.... not when it starts snowing. They should be left on a shelf near the surface.